The Public Corruption Is So ... Public

 

quid pro quo -- Latin, literally, "something for something"; in English, noun, a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something.

 

Danielle Sassoon, an honest lawyer
who resisted Trump's corruption of justice

Eric Adams, the current mayor of New York City, was indicted last year on five counts, including bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, stemming from an investigation that began in 2021. Adams had pleaded not guilty and was scheduled for trial in April. Turns out that Danielle Sassoon, the interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York, was planning to add another charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice against Adams, “based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the FBI.” (New York Times)

As previously noted here, Eric Adams has been sucking up to Trump like a groveling underling who knows he's destined for prison. In pre-trial conferences, according to Sassoon, the mayor’s lawyers had “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the [DOJ’s] enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” Those "enforcement priorities" primarily apply to the capture and deportation of undocumented immigrants. New York City has laws that make it a so-called "sanctuary city," which simply means that it demands due process: The New York Police Department can only work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when it comes to a criminal detainer, which is ordered by a judge. Adams, to please the man who has control over the Justice Department, had decided to allow ICE agents into the city's jail on Riker's Island to arrest and deport anyone with a funny name.

Emil Bove III

"I'll let ICE run rampant if you drop the corruption charges against me." That's clearly the deal that went down. But rather than dismiss the charges against Adams, which the Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove III (very recently one of Trump's defense lawyers) ordered Sassoon to do, she resigned and wrote a blistering letter which laid out the corruption she was observing at first-hand: “I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful,” Sassoon wrote to Bove. She also addressed words to Pam Bondi, the new Attorney General, that Bove’s order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.”

When Sassoon, a very conservative lawyer in good standing with the Federalist Society, wouldn't perform the corrupt dismissal of charges against Adams, Bove moved the indictment to the Public Corruption section of the Department of Justice and demanded that the ranking officials there dismiss the charges. Five more lawyers (at last count) also resigned rather than carry out the corruption. It was a Thursday night massacre.

As far as I can tell neither Bove nor Bondi has been able to find a chump lawyer to dismiss the charges against Adams, and the knowledge of Trump's outrageous corruption of the DOJ is blossoming beyond his ability to contain it.

UPDATE

When Emil Bove couldn't brow-beat any career prosecutors to sign the motion to dismiss the charges against Eric Adams, he was forced to sign the motion himself (according to the NYTimes). The motion for dismissal still has to go to the judge overseeing the Adams case in Manhattan.